Bus 642 week 4-a1

Workplace Safety

Saline Leverett

BUS 642 Business Research Methods & Tools

Instructor: Jon Webber

June 13, 2016

Introduction

When work is safe, healthy fairly compensated and fulfilling can assist in building contented and long lives as well strengthening communities and families. This kind of work may improve organizational profits and effectiveness as well as lessening health care costs. Due to many deaths and illnesses in workplace, occupational safety and health act was passed to put into practice government standards in workplace. Regardless of the enactment of Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, there is still large number of employees getting injured, ill or dying in the workplace (Gray & Jones, 1990). Workplace safety is the description of procedures and policies put in place to make sure that there is health and safety of workers inside a workplace. It entails hazard control and identification in accordance with the government standards as well as ongoing safety education and training for employees. Therefore, this project will tend to investigate the reason behind such rise in deaths, injuries or illnesses in workplace and how it can be tamed. The project will entail several methods of data collection and analysis to establish the factors contributing to workplace accidents.

Research question

There large number of deaths, injuries or illnesses in the workplace despite the passage of Occupational safety and health act, why the scenario? This will be discussed in detail and possible factors resulting to OSHA ineffectiveness most of it including poor implementation.

Background research

In the United States, there are approximately 125 million employees, nearly for every two Americans there is one worker. Every day an average of one hundred and thirty-seven persons die from work-associated diseases, other 16 people suffer injuries from workplace. An employee is injured in every five seconds and an employee is permanently or temporarily disabled in every ten seconds. This is costly to both the economy and the employer. The major reason of carrying out this research is to determine the main causes of workplace death, illness or injuries despite some laws that have been put in place to protect workers. Owing to the enactment of occupational safety and health act of 1970, the lives of over five hundred and thirty-two employees saved and it promised workers a safe working place. However, OSHA is somehow failing because it lacks effectiveness. The inspectors that OSHA have are very few compared to the number workplaces present in state and federal regions (Gray & Jones, 1990). Nonetheless, despite improvement in the workplace health and safety conditions, there is worsening of some conditions and hence several employees remain at serious danger of death, illness and health.

Hypothesis

Workers get injured and sometimes die in workplace due to many factors. These include manual lifting/handling, electrical accidents, falls or slips/trips. In construction companies particularly, the dangers for workers include repeated motion injuries, failing to use appropriate individual protective equipment, electric shock, scaffold collapse, trench collapse and falls (The Most Common Injuries and Causes of Accidents at Work). Most of these causes are preventable if workers together with their employers become more careful and responsible in their respective duties.

Research design

The research design for this project is as follows. Since we are dealing with workers who have perfect picture of their place of work, surveys are the best way of collecting data. This can be conducted through the use of online questionnaires as well as written. The workers can be able to fill them using their phones, tablets, computers, laptops etc. The statistical tools that can be used to analyze data are analysis of variance table, SPSS as well as stata.

Sampling plan

Once we have identified the representative of the population, there has to be a suitable way of selecting it. The design behind choosing a sample is to be capable of generalizing the findings to the entire population. This implies that the sample should be a representative of the population. This means that the sample must contain same proportions of subgroups as the total population not leaving out any specific groups whether by who chooses to react or by methods of sampling. Secondly, the sample must be big enough to offer the investigator enough information to evade errors.

Types of Secondary Data that can be used to test Hypothesis

There are many ways in which secondary data is useful, for instance, it offers a baseline for making comparison of individuals results of the primary data collection as well as designing succeeding primary research. Hence, it is always significant to start any research activity by reviewing the secondary data. By reviewing the secondary data, it will assist me in comparing it with the primary data I am preparing to make a program for place of work safety.

Archival data and event studies are the kinds of secondary data which will be used for testing of hypothesis. The significance of archival data in hypothesis testing is to assist in collection of information concerning workplace safety which has already occurred. In hypothesis testing, event studies will assist in evaluating the events’ impact (accidents) which are linked to the way these accidents are occurring. Meta-analysis is another potential kind of secondary data that I may use; it gathers previous investigations of workplace safety which addresses the research question. In this case, secondary data will be helpful in making suitable survey for workplace safety that will be used in gathering information to be used in generating a training program for workers. Many times in a large research project, early analysis of secondary data can inform and alter the direction of the research projects’ primary data about to be launched; however, such insights attained earlier may be invaluable. Furthermore, primary data may not have to be used in generating training program and survey since secondary data is excellent enough. Hence, it will be cheaper to obtain these secondary data (Institute for Work & Health. (n.d.).

Measurement scales and benchmarks used in a survey for testing hypothesis

The potential measurement scales and benchmarks that can be employed for workplace safety could be the internet means of collection data, pencil-paper. This study subject employs a survey technique to collect data by internet or paper or pencil to observe if there is existence of measurement equivalences. The survey will contain questions that entire companies would use or employ the data to form place of work safety training programs. Therefore, the collected data will indicate that merging data acquired by the pencil-and-paper and internet is a genuine means of collecting data. This measurement scale and benchmark are helpful to companies or institutions that use surveys to collect data to assist them in making future corporations’ plans. When collecting data from workers, surveys are the best way of doing so since they have the actual knowledge of the workplace safety. Thus, the data obtained from measurement scales and benchmarks will offer information that is enough to generate a training program for place of work safety. The information will in turn continue to offer the programs’ future improvements (Analysis of Secondary Data Research Paper Starter - eNotes.com. (n.d.).

References

Gilbert, M., & Bilsker, D. (n.d.). Improving Psychological Health & Safety in the Workplace: Critical Analysis and Pragmatic Options. PsycEXTRA Dataset. doi:10.1037/e551362013-001

Gray, W., & Jones, C. A. (1990). Are OSHA Health Inspections Effective? A Longitudinal Study in the Manufacturing Sector. doi:10.3386/w3233

Analysis of Secondary Data Research Paper Starter - eNotes.com. (n.d.). Retrieved June 13, 2016, from http://www.enotes.com/research-starters/analysis-secondary-data

Institute for Work & Health. (n.d.). Retrieved June 13, 2016, from http://www.iwh.on.ca/wrmb/primary-data-and-secondary-data

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